It is a fact universally acknowledged (to paraphrase novelist Jane Austen) that many of Miss Austen’s fans are women. It is a fact not universally acknowledged that some stage and screen adaptations of her novels have had mixed success. This does not imply that women are averse to theater or film, but it may relate to what they expect such adaptations to offer them.

In particular, they expect a healthy helping of the brooding Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and his piercing gaze as he verbally duels with the lovely Elizabeth Bennet. Any perceived lack of Darcy could prove dicey, indeed.

Austen observed that “a lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.” She managed her own imagination superbly in writing seven novels. But in translation from page to stage, pacing not speed makes a good play. Theater also requires a clear eye, a sharp ear and the ability to manage actors and stage technicians as efficiently as Miss Austen must have managed guests at high tea.

True believers in Miss Austen’s rapid imagination want to focus on her wit, whimsy and mordant observations of English family and social life. Those same true believers will flock to see the new adaptation of “Pride & Prejudice” currently onstage at People’s Light & Theatre in Malvern as excited, heedless and wide-eyed as the five Bennet sisters Austen immortalized in her novel. They will not be disappointed. Though the unusual set may surprise and the design is minimal it is the gowns, the dances and above all the glances that will inspire sighs and moist eyes in the Janeites (as her fans are known) after they negotiate thawing banks of snow in the parking lot to reach the emotionally charged drawing rooms of Regency England.

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Published exactly 201 years ago, “Pride & Prejudice” was Austen’s own favorite and remains the second most popular book in Britain (after J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings) as well as a literary indulgence for millions elsewhere. The only way an Austen adaptation can truly stumble is when it the deemphasizes that unmistakable Austen voice commenting on her characters, what critic Kenneth Tynan referred to as “the running commentary, sometimes malicious, sometimes approving, that she keeps up on their behavior… this relentless concern with motivation that makes (Austen) a novelist.”

The People’s Light stage adaptation by Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan rightly keeps the focus tightly on the relationship of the second eldest Bennet daughter Elizabeth with her family and the upright and uptight Mr. Darcy. To emphasize the importance of dance to social life and romance in Austen’s time, the People’s Light production has reconfigured its stage from a proscenium to an elongated runway with “tennis court” seating on each side, providing the audience a literal front row seat for public observation of courtship in Regency England. It’s perfect for dancing, but tougher on the character interactions necessary to advance the story.

An opening weekend performance showed great energy and fine choreography in the first act dance scenes but a lack of focus in the interaction between the Bennet sisters and a literal as well as emotional gap between Elizabeth and Darcy, with flubbed lines by some of the supporting cast. This improved notably in the second act and may simply have been first-week jitters.

With a manner appropriately feisty, bright and and uncompromising, People’s Light company member Julianna Zinkel strives to embody Elizabeth Bennet. Marc LeVasseur’s Darcy has the tougher task of being haughty and uncommunicative while both conveying and concealing that simmering sensuality the Janeites demand. Spinning about the other characters on the lengthy stage and circling each other at distances that appear at times telegraphic, the space seems too vast for them to consistently project that tireless energy for keen observation and cutting comment that immortalized their characters.

In the roles of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, People’s Light veterans Tom Teti and Marcia Saunders are as happy, comfortable and distant as mismatched shoes. They embrace their dysfunctional marriage in the traditional English way: she verbally and delightedly commands the household and he holds sway in the library.

The four other Bennet sisters are huggably familiar to Janeites and the director allows each one their moments to shine; Jessica Bedford as the most lovely and marriageable eldest sister Jane Bennet who is bait for the happily hooked aristocrat Mr. Bingley; Emily Kiser as the hyper energetic and hyperventilating wayward youngest daughter Lydia Bennet; Clare Mahoney who pouts her way through her sisters’ romances as Catherine Bennet and Becky Baumwoll as the bookish but unstoppable and unshakable Mary Bennet.

Yoshinori Tanokura’s set more resembles a jet runway than the ill-lit 18th-century drawing rooms and assemblies where Austen’s heroines hunted, but serves the intent of the two adapters and director Samantha Bellomo, a non-Janeite choreographer who wants the light-footed dancing to be the counterpoint to the slow-boiling passion onstage.

“Pride & Prejudice” will run through March 30 on the Leonard C. Haas Stage at People’s Light & Theatre, 39 Conestoga Road in Malvern. For tickets, call 610-644-3500, or go to PeoplesLight.org.